Wireless devices, such as cellular phones, communicate with wireless communication networks via access nodes, such as base stations. The wireless communications between the wireless devices and the network occur using frequencies in the radio frequency (RF) band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some communications, such as user voice and data communications, typically use an access channel, while control communications from the wireless network typically use a control channel.
Signals from a wireless device to a base station may be interfered with by other electromagnetic radiation in the same RF band as the signal from the wireless device. This radiation is called interference, or noise, because it may hinder the ability of the signal to be received and interpreted properly. Sometimes the noise can be caused by devices communicating with the same base station on similar frequencies to that of the wireless device. Noise received at the base station when the base station is communicating with the wireless device is called the reverse noise. Reducing the reverse noise may provide better conditions for the base station to communicate with the wireless device.
In order to help manage reverse noise and connections to a base station the base station may also maintain a dormancy timer. A dormancy timer tracks the amount of time that has elapsed since the last communication was exchanged on an access channel assigned to a wireless device. Once the timer indicates that enough time has passed since the last communication exchange, then the base station releases the access channel for use by other wireless devices.